ANTONINA SZULCZEWSKA

Warsaw, 28 July 1948. Judge Halina Wereńko, a member of the District Commission for the Investigation of German Crimes, interviewed the person named below as a witness, without taking an oath. Having been advised of the criminal liability for making false declarations, the witness testified as follows:


Name and surname Antonina Izabela Szulczewska, née Janczewska
Date of birth 17 May 1910, Krompice, district of Płońsk
Parents’ names Antoni and Henryka, née Chabowska
Religion Roman Catholic
Citizenship and nationality Polish
Education secondary school
Occupation housewife
Place of residence Warsaw, Marii Kazimiery Street 3, flat 5

When the Warsaw Uprising broke out, I was in the Marymont district at Marii Kazimiery Street 3, flat 5. Throughout August and in the beginning of September everything was calm at our house, there were neither Germans, nor insurrectionists. Because of the strong fire coming from the direction of the nearby barracks at Gdańska Street, it was impossible to go out into the street or to stand in a window on that side of the building.

Towards the end of August 1944 German planes repeatedly dropped leaflets summoning the civilian population to leave the city. None of my friends left. I don’t possess such a leaflet.

On 29 or 30 August the Germans abandoned the barracks and withdrew in the direction of Bielany. On 13 September the shelling of Marymont from the Central Institute of Physical Education intensified.

On 14 September it grew stronger still; at the time I was with my daughter in the bunker. Other residents of our house and people from neighbouring houses that were not fitted with shelters had gathered there, too. At around 15:00 some man told us that a German tank was driving up to our house.

Some time later, German soldiers burst into the bunker. We were ordered to raise our arms and come outside (Raus). We were led through a hole in the fence to the neighbouring property, located at the corner of Marii Kazimiery and Potocka streets. We were set up against the wall of the so-called Marysieńki Palace from the side of Marii Kazimiery Street. There was a tank in Marii Kazimiery Street. We stood facing the street. After a while, the tank fired a salvo in our direction. I fell with my daughter before the bullets could hit us. Others fell around us. Three salvoes were fired in our direction. Next, lying on the ground, I saw a German soldier approach our group, kneel and shoot at those who were lying down with an automatic weapon. The tank left along Potocka Street in the direction of the Wisła. Long after the tank had gone, at around 23:00, I got up with my daughter. I saw that my cousins had been killed: Zofia Rzeszotarska with her son Jan and mother Maria Waliszewska – the entire close family of cavalry captain Rzeszotarski. Three members of the Szwajdler family had perished, along with Tadeusz Wójcik and his sister Halina, Czesława Wiśniewska, Wiktoria Wiśniewska, the father of Jadwiga Kołakowska, as well as residents from the neighbouring houses: Leokadia Witecka, Zofia Snarska, Zbigniew Bajkowski.

I don’t know the exact number of those killed. There were many wounded, and among them: 2-month old Lucyna Wiśniewska (she died in Kraków), Ryszard Wójcik (18 years old, currently residing in Warsaw, Marii Kazimiery Street 3, flat 1), Zygmunt Wiśniewski, who had lost an eye (currently residing at Marii Kazimiery Street 3, flat 22), and numerous others. During the night cavalry captain "Żmija" sent an insurrectionist to take his family, and he escorted my daughter and me to Żoliborz. On this very same night I watched from a house at Mickiewicza Street and saw the burning buildings along Potocka Street, starting from the side of the Wisła.

At this point the report was brought to a close and read out.